Read & Rate my YA novel, SOLSTICE!

Who's Jane Redd? Me! I wrote SOLSTICE in 2011, and I've decided to dust it off and enter it into a teen romance contest. Since the book is set in the future and written for the YA market, and quite a bit different than my other books, I chose a pen name.

You can read and rate it, along with other teen romances, on the website Swoon Reads. For the next 5 months, SOLSTICE will be at the mercy of the public... kind of scary considering I've never offered up one of my unpublished manuscript to the masses in this way.

I've love for you to check it out, rate it, make comments, the whole nine yards... then tell your friends... tell your TEENAGERS :-)

Summary of SOLSTICE:

Four ways to get Banished from the last surviving city on earth are: 1. Cut out your emotion tracker, 2. Join a religious cult, 3. Create a rebellion against the Legislature, 4. Fall in love. 

Jezebel James does all four.

Jez is on the fast-track to becoming a brilliant scientist, with one goal—to save her city from total extinction. Her caretakers have entrusted her with a secret plan to stop the rain from flooding the rest of the earth and start civilization anew. But the more Jez learns about the price of a fresh beginning, the more she realizes that carrying out the plan will lead to few survivors, and among the dead will be those she cares about the most.

 

Updates & Conferences

Lots going on.

Most significant. My "baby" turned 7 years old this past weekend. Her favorite present? A box of Lucky Charms all to herself.

Updates on my writing . . . last week I finished the first draft of ATHENA, part of The Newport Ladies Book Club series I'm writing with Annette Lyon, Josi Kilpack, and Julie Wright. We have a blog called The Newport Ladies Book Club blog, although there's not a lot on it . . . yet, but become a follower so that you can be updated at all times :)


Also, I'm getting editing notes back from my alpha readers for my YA speculative book THE BURNING. They are coming back very positive, with some great fixes as well.

This week my priority is to work on edits from my publisher for CHRIST's GIFTS TO WOMEN, which will be out Spring 2012.

AMMON should hit stores any day now. I'll be posting a list of signings very soon! I've received lots of great reviews, which are being posted on the side-bar, and I'm really excited to hear from all of you as well. BTW, AMMON will NOT be eligible for a 2011 Whitney. I'll be serving on the Whitney Committee this year, which means that any 2011 release is ineligible.

CONFERENCES:

Some exciting conferences are coming up.

THE Teen Writers Conference will be June 18 at Weber State University. If your teen is interested in writing, this is a great conference. Details HERE. *Seating is limited and the registration deadline is June 8.

PEG Live Critiquing Workshop: August 13, American Fork Library. This is sponsored by my editing company and will include a day of live critiquing by my senior editors. It will be fantastic and very hands-on. Details are on the PEG Workshop blog. We've already had a great response, so please sign up early--seating is limited!

Book signing April 2

I'll be doing Ladies Night at the Fort Union Deseret Book on April 2, 6:00-8:00 p.m. (Utah). It's an awesome store and they have tons of goodies and other authors/musicians there.

Also, some of you wanted an update on my interview with a Dial Press editor over the weekend. We spent about 20 minutes talking about my YA book, which was really priceless to me. She gave me some great feedback, but even better, she said the premise was intriguing and very cool. A few of my friends were worried that the market was saturated in this genre, but the editor said it has great potential, so my confidence was aided by her comments.

She said it felt like a cross between The Giver and All Summer in a Day (Ray Bradbury). So my plan is to do another read-through/revision with her suggestions in mind, then submit the manuscript and see what she thinks.

In other news, I finished the final proofread of galleys for AMMON. I was very happy to find that I really enjoyed reading the story. That's always a good sign, and now I'm more excited to begin the promotion phase. In the next couple of weeks, I'll make an official request for reviewers.

Last night at critique group, Michele Holmes gave us copies of her latest book. It's a really fun western romance (great Mother's Day gift, hint hint):

Good Day so far . . .

In the writing side of my life, it's been a decent couple of days.

This morning I heard from my publisher that the non-fiction book I co-wrote with Angela Eschler was officially accepted. Not as the World Giveth: Christ's Gifts to Women will be released March 2012 in time for Mother's Day (unless the world comes to an end first).

Also, today I finished the 2nd draft stage of my YA Speculative novel and 'maybe' solidified the pitch. I was able to answer some of the bigger picture questions that were proving quite elusive.

Yesterday, I got a sneak peak at the cover for my next book: AMMON. It will be out in June. I'll be doing the final proofread pretty soon (which can be a painful process because I can't really change anything, just fix typos or formatting stuff).



In the next few weeks, I'll start to recruit reviewers for AMMON and come up with a several week giveaway leading up to the release date. Stay tuned . . .

Happy writing and reading everyone!

Sorry . . .

I've been a lame blogger. But if it's any comfort, I've been doing a lot of writing.

I finished the first draft of my YA speculative book and now I'm doing some revision work before sending out to some alpha readers, whom I am feeling very sorry for in advance (since this is my first YA novel and I'm sure I still have a lot to learn). But this weekend I'll be meeting with an editor from a national publishing house, so I'll let you know if she loves the idea or hates it. (And now you know why I was pushing to have the first draft done by this week!)

I tried to write a pitch, but then it turned into a 3 page synopsis. So I tried again, and although I'm not happy with it yet, at least it's there in black and white. You can tell me if it sounds lame-o.

The Burning
YA Speculative
72,000 words

16 year old Jezebel has been taught to suppress her emotions at young age in order to avoid censure by the New Government. But when she discovers the truth behind her grandmother’s execution—the crime of falling in love—Jez realizes that the emotions she’s been battling put her in the same category as her grandmother. Jez becomes a dangerous liability in a dying world besieged by non-stop rain, where the survival of civilization is dependent on absolute obedience.